Acute hepatitis caused by sexual or household transmission of GBV-C.
OBJECTIVE
Transfusion transmission is the only known transmission route of the recently identified GBV-C. To date, no evidence of household transmission of GBV-C has been reported. In the present study, a case of acute GBV-C hepatitis was investigated with respect to the mode of transmission.


METHODS
A 24-year-old woman with acute GBV-C hepatitis and her asymptomatic husband were examined. Two GBV-C RNA samples, isolated at different times from both the patient and her husband were amplified by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction using sequences from the NS3 region. Sequencing of this region was subsequently performed for all four samples.


CONCLUSIONS
The genomic RNA sequences of GBV-C isolated from each partner at two different time points were found to be 100% homologous. However, these genomic GBV-C RNA sequences differed in the NS3 (helicase) region from the genomic RNA isolated from the GBV-C prototype previously reported by Simons et al. Nonetheless, high homology (83%) was found between the GBV-C prototype and the GBV-C isolated from our patients. In addition, four nucleotides of the GBV-C RNA in the present study are unique and are not present in any other reported sequences of GBV-C. These results strongly suggest that GBV-C is one of the etiological agents involved in severe liver injury and was transmitted between this couple.
Tanaka
T
T
Liver Unit, The Tokyo Metropolitan Komagome Hospital, Japan.
Takeuchi
T
T
Inoue
K
K
Tanaka
S
S
Kohara
M
M
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D001483:Base Sequence; D005260:Female; D018067:Flaviviridae / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000209:etiology* / Q000635:transmission; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D015229:Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Viral / Q000209:etiology* / Q000635:transmission
D012367:RNA, Viral